Sweet Life
by canadian author
Summary: "She only remembers marching up to Benji and kissing him. She knows immediately that this is the kind of kiss she'll be writing songs about." [five times Emily knew she was in love with Benji]


**Disclaimer: I do not own _Pitch Perfect_**

* * *

 _one._

As soon as Worlds ends, everything becomes a blur.

Right after they're crowned as World Champions, they're dragged offstage to be interviewed by about 10 different media outlets (though, the interview with John and Gail is something that Emily would like to forget). Emily gets asked a lot of questions because she is now the one Barden Bella left and she wrote "Flashlight." She stumbles through the interviewers' questions; she's on too much on a high from winning and performing her own original song to answer in complete sentences. She's just glad Beca and Chloe are there to guide her through them.

Once the interviews are done, the Bellas go back to the pavilion to find it's been turned into a massive party that makes all of the a capella parties back at Barden look like a 12-year-old's birthday party. Most of the fans have been shooed away for the party, leaving a lot of alcohol free for drinking. The results include drunken riff offs on stage and too many drunk people dancing and making out in the open lawn. The event organizers are trying to contain the chaos but that's what they get for thinking that all these teams who just lost the biggest competition of the year wouldn't drink away their sorrows and that the Bellas, who have no doubt grown notorious for their partying, wouldn't drink to celebrate their victory.

Emily walks throughout the pavilion trying to find Benji. She hasn't seen him since their kiss before she went on stage and she has _so_ many questions: Are they dating? _Should_ they date? Did he like their performance? Did he like _her_ performance? Did he like her song?

She gets stopped about a dozen times as she tries to find him. Cynthia Rose and Stacie are keen on teaching her how to dance and slipping her some foreign alcohol the other teams brought while Amy tries to get her to join her in a riff off against some Canadians who are even more drunk than she is. Her mom also keeps stopping her. Emily loves her mom-she really does-but as much as she wants to talk about Worlds with her, she also knows that her mom would not be excited to hear that she is trying to start a relationship with a Treblemaker (well, she guesses an ex-Treblemaker now that he's graduated).

But at the same time, it's her mom and she can't _not_ talk to her when she just won Worlds.

"And oh my aca-gosh Mom I thought I was going to throw up all throughout our last rehearsal! Chloe kept telling me to breathe but it was so _terrifying_ , you know? I knew there was gonna be a lot of people and I was so worried that no one would like 'Flashlight' so I was nervous of course but then Beca handed me her phone so I could talk to Benji and he calmed me down and he-"

"Benji," her mom interrupts. Emily starts panicking because yeah she's mentioned Benji to her mom before but now her mom is staring at her with a knowing grin, as if she knows already that she and Benji kissed.

"You know," her mom continues, "this awkward young man named Benji _just_ walked up to me. After making sure I'm your mother and that Beca wasn't lying to him, he actually asked me for my permission to ask you on a date."

Emily feels like her heart is going to burst of joy when she hears this.

Asking her mom for permission to ask her out is so _Benji_. It is most definitely old-timey and she's sure that no one else does it anymore but she doesn't care. Benji knows how much she loves her mom and values her friendship with her so he went out of his way to ask her mom for permission. He's really the sweetest, most caring gentleman she's ever met-even if the first thing he told her was that he wanted to saw her in half.

"Did you tell him yes?" Emily asks, practically leaping for joy.

"No."

Her heart and her smile drops as she shouts, "Mom, why? Benji may have been a Treblemaker but he makes me _so_ happy, Mom! He was my first friend-even before the Bellas! He's been there for me since day one and I don't know what I'd do without him. He's really, truly-"

"Emily."

"-the best guy I ever met and-"

"Emily."

"-you _need_ to grant your permissi-"

"Emily!"

She finally stops talking and realizes that her hands are shaking, even more than when she was getting ready to go on stage. Her mom is smiling at her when she tells her, "Emily, I told him yes. And since you are absolutely _dying_ to go on that date with him, I say that you go find him and tell him you'll go on a date with him."

In the years that pass, Emily isn't even sure if she said bye to her mom. All she remembers is taking off in a sprint because she sees Benji talking to Jesse and the rest of the Bellas and Aubrey, who have all calmed down significantly since she last saw them. She can't remember what they say to her; she only remembers marching up to Benji and kissing him.

She knows immediately that this is the kind of kiss she'll be writing songs about.

(Of course she'll leave out the various reactions from the Bellas and Jesse, which all involve a wide variety of explicit words.

She loves them all so much still.)

* * *

 _two._

Emily is _this_ close to making her Bellas swim three laps around the lake. It's a very random threat but she has to do something. They're not being responsible at all, despite the speech she gave the first day she assembled them. They all think that this is fun and games, that they'll automatically fall into the fame they're inheriting from the previous group of Bellas. Combine their arrogance and laziness, she's got the worst batch of Bellas ever made.

"I'm telling you Benji! I'm doomed!" she shouts.

When he chuckles, their Skype call pauses. She slams her laptop back onto her bed and the reception fixes itself. The poor reception causes her to miss out on some of what he says so she only hears him say something about Star Wars.

The Skype calls are another painful reminder that he's not here with her. He's in New York studying at NYU for grad school while she's still at Barden. They've been determined to make their long distance relationship work, even if neither really know how to make a short distance relationship work to begin with. All they know is that they want to be together.

"You're gonna be fine," he tells her.

"No, I'm not. They're _animals_ , Benji," Emily insists. She wonders if she should call the girls. They all told her that they'll help her if she calls but she shoots the idea down immediately. She wants to do it on her own. She needs to prove to herself that she can captain the Bellas, that she's not just some Legacy that walked into the Bellas (well she _did_ but at least she auditioned).

He smiles and tells her, "I got faith in you. If anyone can do it, it's you. You're gonna whip them into shape and be the captain you always dreamed you'd be."

Even all these miles away he can still make her smile so wide it hurts.

They talk longer about various things: their classes, how all the girls up in New York are doing, her internship at Residual Heat (it's just as miserable as Bella warned it would be). Every now and then, Benji almost falls or stumbles because he decided it'd be a smart idea for him to talk to her and walk at the same time. She told him that they can talk when he's arrived at his destination safely but he insisted on talking to her; he said that it'd be like he was walking with her.

He's really the best guy she ever met.

"Hey Em, are you at the Bella House?" Benji asks out of the blue.

"Yeah," she says. "Why?"

"I think you should come answer the door."

Emily immediately flies off the bed and starts running to the door. When she leaps down the stairs, she stumbles into the banister. It must've been pretty loud because one of her Bellas shouts, "Are you okay?" As rude as it is, she decides not to answer in favor of running to answer the door.

She pulls the door open to find Benji standing on the porch.

The surprise is almost too much to contain. She debates if she should pinch herself because there's _no_ way that he's actually here. It's just some illusion that she made up because she misses him so much. It's impossible. He's supposed to be in New York, not here in Barden on a random Friday night.

"Miss me?" he asks, even though he already knows the answer.

(They discover making out against the doorframe isn't the best idea when her Bellas finally go to see who Emily opened the door for and subsequently ruin their moment.)

* * *

 _three._

Jesse and Beca broke up.

Jesse and Beca are no longer dating.

Jesse and Beca are not a couple anymore.

Beca had broken the cause for their breakup for her when she first came to visit her in New York over semester break. She explained that long distance wasn't working anymore, that the spark faded in part because of it. She didn't seem devastated over it, which was a good sign, but Emily was still shaken up about it.

Because if _Jesse and Beca_ couldn't make long distance work, what about her and Benji?

Emily has been stressing about it for her entire stay in New York. She's been so stressed that she's been avoiding Benji the whole break, even though he is 50% of the reason why she came to New York. (Beca is 15%, Chloe and Amy are both 10%, and visiting the record company Beca works at is another 15%.)

Being that she's been staying in her apartment, Beca takes notice of the fact she hasn't gone to see Benji at all yet. One day when they're lounging around waiting for Fat Amy and Chloe to come back from the airport with Aubrey, she finally mentions it.

"They're not gonna be back for a while. I could take you to Benji's dorm," Beca offers.

"No."

Beca looks up from her laptop with a concerned expression. She asks her, "Did you...did you and Benji break up?"

"No."

Now Beca is more confused than concerned. She asks, "Then why don't you want to see him? You didn't see him during the semester and now you're on break in New York but you haven't seen him at all yet. Something is _definitely_ up so you have two options: tell me or the others."

Emily begins to debate her options: tell Beca or tell Amy, Chloe, and Aubrey. She cherishes Beca's advice and given any other circumstance, she would've told her but she can't-all of her relationship insecurities are because of _her_ breakup. Then there was the latter option. Admittedly, things may be less awkward but she's still not entirely sure if Amy likes her and she's still kind of scared of Chloe and Aubrey.

So Emily decides to spill things to Beca.

"Okay so when you and Jesse broke up and you said it was about you guys being long distance, I couldn't...I got scared. I mean, you guys dated for _four years_ -I thought we'd be going to your wedding pretty soon. And Benji and I? It's only been a little more than a year since we started dating and we're long distance and...if _you guys_ couldn't make it, how are Benji and I supposed to? And I don't know...I've been so stressed about us breaking up I've been avoiding him and I know it's wrong but I'm so scared, Beca! I'm...I'm pretty sure I'm in love with him and I don't want to lose him."

It's a lot so she waits for Beca to collect her thoughts. Emily sits on the couch, impatiently tapping her foot on the floor as she waits for Beca to give her the advice she so desperately needs.

After a while, Beca finally speaks: "Okay, my first advice to you is that you can't go around basing your relationship off of other people. My relationship with Jesse was different than you and Benji's, even if they are both total nerds. Just because me and Jesse broke up because of long distance, that doesn't mean that you and Benji will. So my second advice is for you to get out of my apartment and spend the rest of your time in New York with your boyfriend!

"Actually," she says, standing up, "I'm not giving you a choice on the second one. I'm driving you over to his apartment myself. Come on, let's go!"

"Wait what?"

Beca doesn't give her much of a choice. She grabs Emily by the wrist and pulls her out of their apartment into her car. Before she can protest, Beca pulls out of her parking space and effectively leaves Emily with no choices but other than to talk to Benji (though she briefly considers jumping out of the car). She spends the whole car ride thinking about what to tell Benji: _Hey Benji, I know that we've always prided our relationship on communication but I hope you can forgive me for basically going against Rule #1 of our relationship_. All of her apologies are really bad for a girl who prides herself on her songwriting but she's a bit too stressed to think of a proper apology. Because how is he supposed to apologize for that? She's potentially wrecked their relationship because of her insecurity.

"Hey don't worry. He's like head over heels in love with you. I'm sure he'll forgive you," Beca reassures her. Oddly enough, she's not reassured.

She doesn't feel any better when Beca drags her up the stairs to Benji's dorm or when Beca takes the liberty of knocking on his door. Beca doesn't make things better when she disappears past the corner of the hallway, leaving Emily alone to deal with the consequences of her poorly thought out decisions.

She doesn't know how long she's been waiting but she knows that she's nervous enough that her hands start shaking again, which only happens when she's _very_ nervous. It's happened a total of five times in her life counting now and two of them have been because of Benji. (She isn't sure if that's a good thing or not.)

When the door opens and she sees Benji, everything comes spilling out of her like a river.

"Benji I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to ignore you but I just...well I guess I _did_ mean to ignore you but it's really stupid! I just...when Beca and Jesse broke up, I didn't want us to end up like that and I got so scared I ignored you. It's definitely the stupidest thing I ever did and I know you're probably upset with me and I'll understand if you want to break up but-"

"Hey!" he interrupts. He pulls her in for a tight hug and that's when she lets the tears that she's been holding in fall. "I don't want to break up with you, Em. I'm not gonna let you go over this-hell, I don't intend on letting you go for a long time. And just because Jesse and Beca broke up, it doesn't mean we will. We're gonna make this work if it's the last thing I do because...well, you're probably the best thing that happened to me. And I...I love you, Emily Junk."

If she thought she was a mess before, now she's an absolute mess-she's crying so much she hiccups and she can't say proper words. When she can finally speak in coherent sentences, the first thing she says is, "I love you too, Benji Applebaum."

(She ends up staying the night in his dorm.

When he drops her off the next day, she's subjected to an hour-long interrogation and sex talk by the girls.)

* * *

 _four._

She's in Los Angeles. She's literally dreamed of going to Los Angeles-it was second on all of her dream boards. Not to mention, she's there with the girls, who have all assembled in the sunny city to celebrate the government's decision to not deport Flo. Stacie has a list of about fifty clubs for them to celebrate at, even if Emily is underage.

And in between all the partying and sightseeing, she fantasizes about living there. Stacie tells all the girls that they should all move out to LA but in private, she admits to Emily that she wants her to move out there the most. She tells her about all the amazing schools she could go to if she wants to further her education-Stacie is adamant about them going to UCLA together-and that she could start a solo career if she wants to.

But even when she's supposed to be thinking about her and Stacie living together and going on adventures in LA, Emily only imagines a future where she lives here with Benji.

They'd live across the hall from Stacie because she could help them out whenever they needed it (well they _could_ live near Jesse but as a Bella, she's not supposed to be hanging out with Jesse-even if her boyfriend is his best friend). Benji would get a job with one of the various technology companies in the city and she'd either be at UCLA with Stacie or start a music career with Beca (because she is _so_ going to move to LA eventually). Since he's an awful cook, she'd cook for them. And since she can't ever wake up on time, he'll be there to wake her up so she won't be late. Most importantly, they'll be able to go on _actual_ dates.

Just the idea of living with Benji is enough to make her smile.

Stacie takes notice of her smile and asks her, "What are you smiling about, Legacy? Isn't your head pounding too?"

Oh yes it is pounding, all thanks to their trip to the city's hottest club last night. The rest of the girls are all still passed out; frankly, Emily should be sleeping too but Benji called an hour ago and she couldn't fall back asleep. So instead, she's making pancakes.

"It is but I'll be okay," she says. "Do you still like blueberries in your pancakes?"

"Yeah," Stacie says, taking a seat. "And you didn't answer my first question."

Emily smiles just thinking about it, which makes her realize just how head over heels she is for her boyfriend. She tells her, "Just thinking about living here with Benji. He'd get a job here, I'd pick between school and music. And we'd go on actual dates together instead of just talking on Skype all the time. It'll be so-"

"Do you realize you sound like a girl in a rom com?" Stacie interrupts.

"Oh shut up," she says, even though she knows that she totally does.

Her mom told her that she should never plan her life around a guy, that she should plan her life over what she wants and needs. But the thing is, she knows now that no matter what she eventually plans to do, she wants Benji to be by her. Emily never thought she'd feel that way about anyone but now she can't imagine _not_ being with him.

"God, you're _so_ in love with that nerd, you know that right? You're planning your life with him and you're not even out of college yet."

She doesn't deny even try to deny it.

(Of course her one regret is admitting to Stacie how much she is in love with him because Stacie spills it to the girls when they wake up. Naturally, they spend the rest of break teasing her about Benji and joking about their wedding.

Emily doesn't mind at all.)

* * *

 _five._

As soon as the song ends, everything becomes a blur.

They're pulling each other in so many hugs that Emily loses track of who she hugged and who she hasn't. It doesn't help that she's having trouble of seeing through her tears. Can you blame her? It's an emotional moment. And the camera crew absolutely _loves_ them so they pull them all backstage while DJ Khaled's onstage for interviews for the TV special. They do one big group interview where they rehash their journey-Aubrey's dictatorship, their rise to the top of the a capella world, their fall to the bottom of the a capella world, their second rise to the top of the a capella world, their near-death experience with Amy's dad-and it makes them all so emotional that they nearly cry on camera.

Once they're done, they join the after-party. Aubrey reunites with her dad, Lilly-wait, _Esther_ now-hooks up with one of the DJ guys, and Chloe makes out with Chicago (Emily is a tad annoyed that Chloe and Beca _still_ aren't together). Eventually, all the girls manage to get together long enough to agree that in a few days, they'll fly out to LA to meet Bella Conrad.

Emily decides it's not worth going back to Barden for like three days so she calls Benji to see if she can stay with him at his new apartment in New York (because there is no way she's staying in the girls' camped studio apartment again). But to her surprise, he doesn't pick up.

"No answer from, Romeo?" Beca asks as she takes a sip of vodka.

"It's fine," she says, putting her phone back into her purse. "He's probably busy. He's just getting out of work this time so that's why."

Cynthia Rose smirks at her. "Or cause he's standing right behind you."

 _Wait, what?_

Emily turns around and finds that Benji _is_ standing behind her-in _Europe_. It feels like a repeat of Worlds when he surprised her but now, she's not as nervous and a little drunk this time around so she doesn't even question his presence and opts for greeting him with a long kiss.

"In my country, you only kiss someone like that if you're engaged," she hears Flo say to the girls.

She tries to focus on Benji and Benji only but the girls are wolf whistling and cheering from behind them. When they did that at Worlds, she was absolutely mortified but now, she's way too happy about performing on stage with them one last time and seeing Benji to care.

"What are you doing here?" she asks.

"I found out that you guys almost died!" he says like it should be at the forefront of her thoughts. Truth be told, she actually did forget that that whole ordeal happened.

Benji then pulls her in a tight hug, like he's scared that he'll never see her again. And she realizes that she and the girls actually could've died. They may have died on that boat together. She would've died not having seen her parents or Stacie again. She wouldn't have gotten to meet Bella Conrad. Most importantly, she would've died a whole continent away from Benji and he would have had to find out through the news.

Call her overdramatic but that thought makes her more sad than the thought of her _dying_.

"Hey don't worry. I'm here and I'm not gonna die again any time soon," Emily reassures him. She feels him shaking as she holds him, which sobers her more than any of Stacie's patented hangover cures could. She doesn't know how long she hugs him; she just knows she's content with staying in his arms forever and that she feels cold when he pulls back.

"And, I uh," Benji says, bending down on one knee, "I would hate for you to die when I...well, I've got something for you."

For a delusional and hopeful moment, Emily thinks that he's pulling out a ring (and judging by the girls' screams from behind her, they think the same thing). Even if they've only been dating for two and a half years, she knows she wants to spend her life with him and will agree to marry him any time.

Instead, he pulls out a gold key.

"Emily Junk, I love you with my whole heart. And I-wow I had this all planned out in my head but now...well, I can't really think of what I was going to say and-"

"Oh my God just ask her already!" Aubrey yells. _Thank you, Aubrey_ , she thinks to herself.

Benji is now a little more flustered than from when he started but with the extra push from Aubrey, he says, "I just love you so much and _wow_ my knee hurts. But yeah, I love you and I want to be with you all the time; long distance made me realize how much I want to be with you, like actually be in the same city as you. So I, uh, I went ahead and bought that apartment in LA we were looking at last summer-the one by Stacie's. And I know it was really spontaneous but it's something we both want and I have to move out there in a few months anyway for this job I have lined up so I guess I'm hoping that...well, will you move to LA with me?"

It's not a marriage proposal but Emily knows now that this is just as important. He's asking her to permanently be with him, when their whole relationship has been spent with them being so far apart.

They're finally going to do it.

They're finally going to actually _be_ together.

"Yes! Of course!" she says. She's crying now and her hands are starting to shake but she's never been happier in her whole life.

Emily doesn't need to write songs about this kiss; she knows she'll remember it forever without needing a song to capture the memories of it.

(Besides, who needs a song to remember this moment? Especially when all the girls are recording it. When Benji realizes they recorded it, he's a little embarrassed but they assure him they'll only play it for their kids and he kisses her again.

God she loves them all so much.)

* * *

 **Author's Note: aight so the story here is that I watched the Pitch Perfect movies again with my sister so this was born. I thought Emily and Benji were cute so here we go. Idk who's gonna read this or if anyone even reads Pitch Perfect fanfiction anymore but if you stumble upon this, favorite or follow or review it. Always a good thing to do.**


End file.
